BOZEMAN, Mont. ­- Imagine being in a spacecraft light years from Earth and surrounded by your own garbage but with nothing to eat. Your life would depend on your ability to recycle your waste and to grow food, and that would depend on your ingenuity in using materials at hand in your spacecraft.

In an experiment designed to test how well food crops grow in substances available in space, students from Sho-Ban School in Fort Hall, Idaho, researchers from the J.R. Simplot Company of Boise, and researchers from the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, hope to expand agricultural knowledge and open up a new frontier. The budding and professional scientists are teaming up to grow peas, potatoes, beans, squash, radishes and other vegetables in a combination of Martian soil, space mission wastes, and zeolite, a porous mineral that is abundant on Earth. The results of the experiment are expected to provide valuable information about food production in closed-loop systems that might ultimately affect the longevity of space missions.

The TechLink Center of Bozeman, Mont. and the Johnson Space Center commercial technology office brought the three groups together for these experiments. Students and researchers will evaluate the rate of growth and yield of their food crops while varying the soil conditions by adding nutrients that would be found at a space station or on a planetary outpost. These nutrients include recycled human wastes and biomass from spacecraft, and zeolites, which may improve soil fertility and water retention. Zeolite is abundant on the Fort Hall Reservation where the Sho-Ban School is located, and possibly occurs on Mars. NASA has provided simulated Martian soil for the team to use as the growing medium. The simulated human waste being utilized for these experiments will be produced by the students following a recipe for synthetic urine.

The Shoshone Bannock tribe is interested in zeolite for its potential to prevent fertilizer runoff on tribal lands. The Sho-Ban students are also interested in how life can be maintained in space. A manned mission to Mars, for example, might last two to three years during which time astronauts would have to recycle and produce much of their own food and water. The project, involving both student and professional scientists, goes beyond typical science fair projects using Mars soil by requiring students to evaluate the effectiveness of soil amendments.

Ed Galindo, the Sho-Ban School teacher who is directing the student part of this project, said the zeolite and artificial urine experiment will be conducted in space aboard the Orbiter Endeavor. Their launch assignment is STS-108, which is currently scheduled for October. "The mission will test our artificial urine with the zeolite," Galindo explained. "We want to see if we can separate the urea from the urine and use the now 'clean' water to grow plants." During the mission, the students also hope to find out how microgravity will affect the experiment. "For me, the most important question is, 'can I get the students to think about real life problems, and have fun as well?'" Galindo said.

Researchers from Simplot are helping to design the experiment with the students, providing technical assistance, analysis, and quality control, and helping the students to analyze their data. Simplot is a diversified Fortune 500 food and mining company that produces fertilizer for agricultural markets.

"We look at this project as a way to introduce students into the world of food production, if they can understand the complexities of the closed loop systems in a spacecraft, they will be well prepared to work in almost any scientific discipline," said Ralph Oborn, researcher with Simplot Agronomy. "Our company is always looking at new and innovative ways to safely apply nutrients to crops. We'll be looking at soil chemistry, reaction rates, plant physiology, computer modeling, horticulture and many other aspects of modern agriculture."

One of NASA's mandates for the last decade has been to transfer technology from its research laboratories to the private sector to help create jobs and increase the nation's productivity. Johnson Space Center is one of several commercial technology offices nationwide. It was established to test spacecraft and human space flight.

TechLink assists companies in the northwestern region of the U.S. to achieve greater economic development by partnering them with federal labs for technology transfer, licensing and commercialization support. TechLink is located at Montana State University in Bozeman and is funded by NASA, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies.

Contacts:
Dan Swanson
MSU TechLink Center
(406) 994-7736
dss@montana.edu

Ralph Oborn
J.R. Simplot Company
(208) 235-5623
roborn@simplot.com

Ed Galindo
Sho-Ban School
(208) 233-7886
mredg@aol.com

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